1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to power units for motor vehicles, and more particularly to power units of a type designed for use in a front-engine front-drive motor vehicle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hitherto, so-called FF-type (i.e., front engine, front drive) motor vehicles have been widely used for various reasons. In the vehicles of this type, the power unit including an engine and transmission is arranged transversely with respect to the vehicle body.
One of the conventional power units used for such FF-type motor vehicle is disclosed in Japanese Patent First Provisional Publication No. 58-46248. In the power unit of this reference, the engine and transmission are aligned or arranged in series to have a common axis which, when the unit is practically mounted to the vehicle, is transversely disposed with respect to the fore-and-aft axis of the vehicle. A differential gear is mounted beside one longitudinal end of the power unit with a transfer shaft extending along the axis of the transmission.
However, due to the inherent arrangement wherein the engine and transmission are aligned, the axial length of the power unit becomes great when a relatively long engine, such as in-line 6-cylinder engine, is used. In this case, mounting such power unit onto a vehicle body becomes difficult because the width of the vehicle body has its limit.
Of course, using a so-called V-type engine eliminates this drawback. However, as is well known, the V-type engines are inferior to the in-line engines in maintenance, inspection conveniency and productivity.